Young Racers' Club August 2008 - Zach Reining

Seventeen-year-old Zach Reining is the Young Racers' Club winner for August. This young man from Forreston, Illinois, has a two-fold goal. Aside from the obvious one of becoming a professional racecar driver, Zach wants to get a college degree in engineering. He started on his quest for a racing career six years ago by racing Go-Karts at Sugar River Raceway in Broadhead, Wisconsin.

In his first year of competition, he won four races and nabbed 17 Top 10 finishes. Not bad for a rookie. The following year Zach moved up a class and won five races and finished Eighth in points. He branched out in year three to run a regional series that included races throughout the Midwest.

His first championship came in 2005 when he won the Briggs Restricted Junior Championship and finished Sixth in the Midwest Sprint Series. He followed up his '05 championship with a Fifth place finish in points in 2006, but the big jump came in 2007. That was the year that he and his family built an ASA late model stock car that they raced at Madison International Speedway. Making the jump from Karts to stock cars isn't always easy, but Zach made a smooth transition collecting one Top 10 finish and eight Top 15 finishes. He also won 2007 Rookie of the Year for the ASA Madison Late Models.

In 2008, Zach will again run the ASA Weekly Late Model Series at Madison International Speedway in Wisconsin, but will add the ASA Midwest Tour Series to his busy schedule. A $250 gift certificate from Racing Head Service will no doubt help in his preparations for a full slate of racing. By the way, if you were wondering about that engineering degree, Zach carried straight A's through junior high and has currently maintained a 4.0 grade point average in high school.